2.5
Quality3.8
Difficulty31%
Would Retake125
Reviews31%
Would Retake
125
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
5
18
4
18
3
22
2
28
1
39
What Students Say
“I want to get hit by a bus walking to his class”
CS109 - 2.0 rating“The bad side is that his lectures are very boring”
CS342 - 2.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
49%
Textbook Required
25%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.81 avg changeRatings by Course
CS340
5.0
(2)CS420
5.0
(1)CS376
4.0
(2)CS442
3.8
(5)CS450
3.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
CS202
5.0
CS107
4.7
CS376
4.5
CS211
4.5
CIS109
4.3
Reviews (125)
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I wanted to learn something in his class, but unless you know alot about this stuff before you enter the class you wont understand a thing. Plus you have to spend a minimum of 30 hours a week on the homework and projects.
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If you want to pass this class with a B or highter you have to go to EVERY class, because test questions usually come from lectures.
Really hard teacher. Expects you to know a lot on his already tough exams. Be prepared to spend a lot of time on his homework. Nice fellow, but again, he has a very strict policy towards his teaching. You will learn a lot, but if you are taking an introduction class, I wouldn't recommend him.
Probably the worst professor I have had at UIC. Even though a class may say "Introduction to..", Bell thinks that you already know everything and his homework assignments require you to know everything. His examples in class don't even work if you try them. DON'T take for an introductory class.
HE IS COOL, BUT HE GIVES MANY HOMEWORKS AND HE DOESN'T REALLY EXPLAIN EVERYTHING ON THE HOMEWORK.
very very hard homeworks,and even harder Exams and final.as all the other guys said,he expect u to know alot even though u r in an introduction class,i wouldn't recommend him.his test are very hard.if u want to get a good grade u have to do programs.
Although this was a 1 hour CS presentation class, he made it seem like it was a 3 hour class. But he kept the topics interesting at times and tells stories from experience. Exams are pretty hard.
his class is hard! don't take him! his exams and homework are hard as hell! he sucks at explaining the class material.
CS202 is probably the most difficult starting course for CS students. But, from experience, Bell is just Hell. I also tried him with CS376 for one day, he turned that class into Hell, which I dropped immediately. If you're willing to put your life on the line for the class, lack of sleep, insanity, etc., then you would do okay. Remember Bell == Hel
I thought he was a good teacher, very nice, but hard to keep up with class if you miss out on lectures, so please do attend his lectures! If you go to class and pay attention, his exams aren't that hard, but make sure you review and know how to do the materials covered in class!
1 hour class, but I guess in his mind 1 = 5!! He made a relatively simple class a PAIN! There were loads of useless assignments, points taken off for the smallest detail, long detailed exams (although not that hard really), unfare grader. Too much work for such a miserable reward.
CS 109, made a simple class extremely hard. Would spend probably 40 hours per assignment. For an into course, he really makes it hell.
Avoid this instructor at all costs. Bell cares little about his students passing, since he provides old tests that are not even relevant to the current subject matter. Definitely one of the worst teachers I have ever had in college.
The toughest CS prof at UIC. You will learn alot in the class if you do the projects. BEWARE do not take other tough CS classes while taking 385 with bell! You will be spending a lot of time doing projects.
BEWARE! If you have no prior knowledge in CS, take it at jr. college. Bell assigns programming assignments one after another, and require 40+ hrs each. Lab every week, even during week of exams. Oh and exams are pretty miserable. He's a guy who over pronunciates all words but doesn't explain his expectations and assignments very well.
HARD!!!!!
Oh...After I see someone comments in this web, I am scaring because I am taking CS109 class under John Bell. I feel his class is hard to understand because he explain fast in class,too simple explain every subject.I feel unlucky in this semester because I'm taking a difficult teacher, but I would try to doing my best under John Bell's CS109 class.
10 hour+ coding assignments. Attendance in class is practically mandatory, as his assignments and exams coincide with his lectures. Notes on C++ are very good, but his lecture is speedy at times. Overall good. Note: His grading scheme is RUTHLESS if you are not on top, you're not getting an A: he looks for "breaks" in the score trends for grades.
If you love the subject, Bell seems like a GREAT prof to have. If you're just taking this because you need the engineering credit, you're gonna have some problems.
VERY HARD..
Programming is a mindset as well as a discipline; if you don't "get" programming logic, this class will be your worst enemy. Consider taking a CS course at a community college over summer. If you have a background with writing code -- even simple code, like BASIC -- Bell does an ample enough job explaining the ins and outs of programming.
I heard horror stories about taking CS385 with Bell. He is tough but I guarantee you you will learn in his class. I think he's a very good teacher, although his programming assignments can take you days and days to complete. Exams are ok, they're not too bad
The class is okay, but there is a disturbing undercurrent of latent racism that Professor Bell exhibits when he publicly refers to his TAs - one Chinese man and one Japanese woman - as "oriental". Perhaps it's unintentional but, John, if you're reading this, leave such euphemisms in the 1900s where they belong.
This class sucks. Nothing personal. He can't answer questions. He basically teaches you a small amount of material and expects you to know everything. I mean everything. Not an easy grader at all.
If you have to take this class with Bell, I am sorry. He is easy to understand but he moves EXTREMELY fast. You have 6-7 HW assignments taking at least 10 hrs on each, maybe 24. He expects EVERYONE do do outstanding, and has no problem failing students. He said, and I quote "I make my exams so that no one can get 100." He was upset someone got 100.
Professor Bell is one of the most helpful professors around.No one else can teach CS109 like him.He will explain all the concepts in class and you have to be responsible for them on the exam(thats what college is about).He also will have an extra session after lecture to help the students (question driven session). Overall you learn a lot! Exellent
Dr. Bell is a smart guy, but not necessarily a great teacher. Lectures are random and haphazard, very boring and hard to follow. Subject material is very difficult, so this is a bad combination. Grades down for bad programming "form" or whatever, but never taught us it. I'm not a programmer, I'm learning to be an engineer. Avoid, avoid, avoid.
Very socially awkward, gets frustrated easily when students talk in his class and do not listen to him. Amusing to see this little bald man, over pronounces words. Thinks and treats students like 5 year olds. Grades harshly, has a air of arrogance around him he def. thinks he is better than everyone.
Prof. Bell is very lively and enthusiastic during lectures. He also makes the lecture enjoyable through his good sense of humor. He did pretty well to turn this "All-theory" course into an enjoyable one. His grading is lenient. So, getting an A if you do well on tests & project is not difficult. I recommend learning CS440 from him!
Though he is funny and his classes are interesting, you won't learn anything new. Its all there in the book(the theory). And programming, you need to google and work it out. Overall an okay Professor. Exams are okay.
Nice class, but didn't go into much depth of networking. As the course title goes, it's Introduction to Networking. Assignments were a bit weird, had to spend more time on coding a game rather than getting the networking parts right.
Prof Bell's CS107 is difficult. Don't get me wrong you get an A but YOUR GONNA HAVE TO WORK HARD AND STUDY. Do not blow this class off you will regret it. Important to learn the material well because he really tests your knowledge on exams. You will learn more from the book then his actual lecture.
Hes horrible. He cares more about his son then helping out students. His homework is way too difficult. Definitely NOT beginner level.
This class will ruin your life. Quizzes are in 10 mins and require 30. Exams test you on literally everything covered up to that point. Two weeks for one project, and that's STILL not enough time to finish. AVOID.
Horrible professor. Thinks least about the students. Heavy workload. Teaching methodology is very very bad. He is like an automated software who keeps on running slides at an extremely fast pace.If you want to learn Software Engineering, forget about it. Exam are also hard.
1st I must say: his exams are a real test of knowledge. Extremely benevolent at grading. HW's are tough but VERY worth the hassle. If people stop attending classes, he threats with giving quizzes (don't do that!). Man... you will learn how to program, at least have the know-how, like you had years doing it. My advice: start strong, finish stronger.
Not a good professor for an intro level class. Very very hard exams and homeworks are even harder. He makes intro level class like a masters degree program lol . Sometimes u have no choice but to take him if he is the only prof for the class u want so GOOD LUCK !
Learned C in this class, interesting content. Not easy but worthwhile, but use 'man' pages for the assignments. Crib sheets are helpful for his exams. Bell has some interesting stories too. All around, challenging class but rewarding at the end from the knowledge gained.
Very boring, monotonous lecturer, it's hard to stay awake. CS 361 covers great topics, but most of the projects assigned are not very beneficial. You will learn how to use low level system commands, by, well, using them for no particular reason. Look up Jakob Eriksson. There, you will actually learn while solving interesting projects Avoid if u can
John Bell does his best to make class interesting and enjoyable. He starts exams with a few jokes and tries to keep things light. This is, however, a clear and cut computer science class. Go to lectures and keep up with the material or you'll get buried fast. Projects start easy and end very hard (12+hrs per program).
The course consisted of 5 programming assignments and 3 tests. Labs were sometimes useful and were lectured by TAs. Assignments can be challenging if it's your first time working with IPC and low-level system calls in C. May be time consuming since you may have to read documentationdebug. Tests are easy if you read book. His notes are shorteasy.
Had him for CS440, Software Engineering 1. Three exams over the entire semester and no quizzes. Exams are not that bad, most questions come from off his PowerPoints. His PPs are based from the book, which is lengthy but you don't have to read all of it. You work on two projects with a group for the entire semester. His teaching is fair.
Prof Bell is a good professor with keen insight into this course and is very good at imparting the knowledge to his students. The course constitutes of 2 'half' projects as he calls them and needs to be worked upon in a team of 4-6 students. There is one mid-term and one final term. There are no assignments. Project needs to be submitted in parts.
Seriously if you're just taking the class for the engineering credit, you're better off taking this class at a community college.
Sine he teaches upper level CS courses intended for actual CS majors, he is inadequate for the general engineers required to take this course. His lectures are usually poor along with his notes and teaching style. He likes to assign big projects much harder than our regular homework and lectures. I want to get hit by a bus walking to his class.
I wouldn't say he's the worst. He's definitely asking too much from engineers that simply need the credit from this course.
Lord help you if you have him. He expects way too much out of beginner programmers. He treats us all like CS majors and the averages on all his tests are a D, so don't feel bad if you legit fail all of them. He curves but his teaching is terrible and I feel like I know nothing.
You will need to do a lot of practice in C++ and Matlab to be able to complete his homeworks! Don't take if another professor is available! Only plus with Bell is that he curves a lot!
Professor Bell is a difficult professor. He expects you to put in a lot of time learning the material. There is a huge amount of homework. The tests are extremely hard, even if you fail all of them you can still pass the class though. The class takes a lot of effort, but just don't give up. Keep working hard because he will curve at the end.
I believe that Professor Bell is too knowledgeable for CS109. He teaches 400+ level courses normally and only started teaching this introductory class last year. The class is HARD. My advice would be to ACE all the assignments(get help!!)because the averages for the exams are 40-60%.
Expects way to much from a 100 level course. Avg for exams are 50, but he curves a good amount. Way too much homework (online hw + programming assignment due every 2 weeks). I would not be able to do those programming assignments if it wasn't the TA telling me what to do line by line. Would definitely recommend having experience on coding before
His lectures are very basic and don't really explain how to code. The projects are HARD. The tests are hard. The participation homework is extremely time draining if actually done properly, although it is by far the best way to actually learn something. Lecture attendance should not be mandatory for this class but it is. Would not recommend.
Hard class if its your first coding experience. MATLAB comes before C++ now (which seems easier). Tests are impossible but averages are super low (30-40%) so the curve is generous. He doesn't really know how to teach, but iclickers are easy so go to lecture. The textbook (Zyante) got me through the class. Try to avoid Bell if you can't self-teach.
I took CS110 the matlab portion of CS 109. The class lasts 5 weeks for 1 credit and the workload is intense. I cant speak for the whole of CS109 but by week 3 Bell was 2 weeks behind the mandatory reading and on week 4 he dumped half the class material on us. Thankfully there is a lot of support for this class Bell and the TAs do a decent job there
He made attendance optional by not using iClicker points towards your grade. The entire class is just doing 7 or 8 programming assignments (that arent too hard. The hardest one took me 6 hours to do, but he gives you 2 weeks) and 2 tests and a final. The tests arent too bad since he lets you have a cheat sheet (handwritten 2x sided) He curves a lot
Bell is one of the worst professors I've ever had. TA grading is inconsistent and unpredictable (I got 40% lower on the second midterm than the first one), and exams are based on asinine trivia from lecture. The homework is pretty easy and all online, but the textbook isn't helpful for the tests at all (but does teach you to code if you try).
Quote of the semester from him: "I just know how to do hard exams." He is too smart to teach an intro class. He is mostly about theory of code and what the codes do, but he does not practice any code with us. You cant learn a language by just reading about it, you have to practice it. He does not practice it in class. The labs do not help either.
Overall positive experience. Exams can be a bit tough but the curve helps. Make sure you do the homework and you'll be prepared. Very knowledgeable and approachable. Warning: super-dry sense of humor.
Went into CS109 not knowing anything about coding (srsly ZERO). Attendance isn't mandatory and posts lecture captures on BB. Learned from Zyante and occasionally looked at the lecture caps to see how to start some of the HW assignments, as he does briefly go over it during lecture. Don't fall behind and understand what you are doing and you're good
The lectures aren't really important unless he's explaining something that's on the homework that's tricky. Even then you can watch all the lectures online. You have to teach yourself a lot of it through the online homework. The tests are meant to be hard but if you understand the homework you'll do fine.
I took CS 440 with professor Bell and certainly enjoyed his lectures. It would really help if we concentrated more on the software aspect rather than the business aspect of it, perhaps more on how to design software, software design pros and cons, comparisons of a bad software design with good software design.
I had to take Bell because I had no other option, but if you can get a different professor, you should probably take them instead. His lectures were insanely boring (I ended up skipping for about two months) and not helpful. Some assignments were really difficult and I had to depend on the TAs to do them. Can be helpful outside class though.
"Im not a hardware guy" - CS 361 Fall 2017
Super underrated. Doesn't fail students on principle - he will literally curve the class crazy hard to make sure everyone who tried passes. If you did his projects, you are pretty much guaranteed to pass exams. His exams are exactly the same format for every class he teaches. This class in particular he allowed cheat sheets which was awesome.
I never showed up to his class and still got an A (granted because Java is relatively easy and the projects are okay). His good side is that he's very accessible outside class. The bad side is that his lectures are very boring.
No idea why his rating is so low. He was the easiest professor I had this semester. 50% of your grade is based on a trivial semester long project. The other 50% on exams which could be considered difficult if it wasn't for the huge curve.
Prof. Bell is very knowledgeable and he is a very nice person. Class is organized and everything is clear. In my opinion two group projects (spans over the whole semester) boosts teamwork skills if you have a good team and you are motivated to get most of it. Be prepared for the anecdotes about his previous life when he was a Chemical Engineer :)
Bell is all over the place. He doesn't give enough time for exams. His projects are never defined well, so expect last minute changes only a few days before it's due. Since the projects are all cumulative, and grades take forever to get back (w/ no feedback) you don't know where you went wrong you can't fix it for the next project.
Bell is actually the worst professor I've ever had. He regularly changes deadlines and requirements at the last minute. During exams, he'll interrupt our work no less than 4 times to clarify things that should have been written down in the first place and walks around the room to move people so they're more spread out while they're trying to focus.
I very much dislike the way his term project is set up. You spend so much time working on certain features, and then the next release, you're asked to scrap it and then implement it a different way. There is SO MUCH redundancy in some of the things he tells you to do. We waste time on pointless things like backwards compatibility for input files.
If you don't know Java you're kinda screwed, otherwise easy A/B. Term project is ridiculous at how redundant and time consuming it is. His lecture are boring but he actually does have some pretty decent slides that actually summarize the textbook material really well.
Took 442 with him as well. Contrary to what everyone says, if you are a "go with the flow" type and want an easy 400-level B, then this is one of the best choices because he just curves that hard. Dont fret over your grade in this class; as long as u attempted all assignments, you are guaranteed a B. The class is team based, so have friends.
I was fine with the projects, I actually liked doing them. But the time crunch on the exams was unecessary. We were already taking them at 6:30PM, there were still a lot of people in the class at the end, meaning they needed more time and he wouldn't give it to us.. Also would say we would get more time, but we wouldn't.
Speaks too slowly. He recorded all lectures and posted them online, which I played back at 175% speed, which then became normal talking speed. We worked on the same project all semester, adding a few new features each month. It was way too easy, and my portfolio didn't improve at all. I withdrew and retook the course with a more demanding prof.
When he teaches 425 (Graphics I), he demonstrates with props, and his projects are interesting. Gone are the PowerPoints from CS342 and CS440. He replaced them w/visually-stimulating examples. It's cool. He uses pen-and-paper math for notes, which improves pacing. Lectures could still be more interactive, but they're much better in CS-425.
Warning to students wanting to take CS440 Software Engineering. This class should be renamed Software Documentation. You don't really learn about software engineering, you learn what John Bell thinks software engineering is. Lecture consists of John Bell talking about diagrams for 50 minutes. I have much more to say but character limit has arrived.
Professor Bell seems like a wonderful guy outside of class, but he was an awful teacher for an introductory computer science course. His lectures skipped all over the place and he expected us to code, while barely teaching students anything. Extremely slow grader too. I thought a CS class would be fun, but I was very wrong. Avoid this class!
His lectures can be a bit dull, but he is a compassionate professor.
All lectures were recorded and posted on Blackboard. Dr. Bell also uploads the notes taken in class to Blackboard and the class site which contains all relevant information for the course. Dr. Bell is very passionate about Computer Science which makes the lectures go by a little quicker.
He's very chill and curves the class to make sure we pass but the work he makes us do is overkill. A coding project and a development project in the same semester is not the move.
Good lecture notes, and that's it. He sucks at every other aspect. Extreme slow grader(thanks to the TAs), he skips office hours a lot, gives hard projects and exams were also difficult. You really should be prepared for this class before taking it with him else you'll struggle so bad. Except he's the only option for a class, DON'T TAKE HIM!
CS 440 gets into a lot of the parts of CS that people don't like, but it is a valuable class. There are 2 semester long group projects with the same group, so make SURE that you like your group and know they will do work. The class isn't awful, but there is a lot of work that you need to keep up with. It is a fairly practical class.
I took CS211 over the summer and so I didn't have any option to choose the professor. The class was unorganized and it seemed like Professor Bell did not prepare the course schedule/coursework enough. Office hours was late at night and sometimes even skipped it. Grades our work a little bit too slow too. Not recommended.
This is by far the worst class I had ever taken. Should really change the name from software engineering to software documentation. Don't take this class. This is not the class you expected it to be. Class consist of the documentation project AND coding project. INTENSE documentation for both of them. The three test are cumulative and unpredictable
By far the worst professor and class I have had at my time at UIC. He puts himself on a high pedestal and has zero empathy for his students. Slides? Boring. Exams? testing your ability to memorize dozens of slides of text and more. You are expected to memorize the entire course content because its "fair game". All in all 0/10 would not recommend.
The class is essentially 2 projects and exams. The projects are graded on arbitrary criteria. Meeting all the requirements of the rubric can STILL get you less than 100% (no explanation given on follow up). His tests just check ability to memorize large ppts. Everything in his class is taught on the job or can be googled in seconds. Waste of time.
I am actively telling students to not take any classes with him. Among all of the 400 level classes I've taken, his classes are the worst and most demanding. It will eat up all of your time and you will have come out learning nothing new. Watch Silicon Valley to learn about Software Engineering instead. You are better off.
Do not expect this class to be like a bunch of fun coding projects that you get to do with a group of people like in previous CS classes. You will suffer pretty easily when you end up writing lots of reports with minimal feedback for two different projects that occur simultaneously and having to memorize tons of lecture slides for the exams.
He only reads slides. For CS 425 computer graphics, he spends most the time reading through slides. He crams alot of information in one class, and it will be extremely hard to keep up if you are taking notes. Learned most of the material on my own. Also slow at grading and makes exams last minute.
If you are completely free in life and feel like wasting your time then take it. I don't understand the importance of this class. So much documentation (long specific requirements for each). If it was more towards software, it would be nice. This class will drain your time like no other CS class. I would say there are better classes. +Exams(lcturs)
Make sure you take this class with your friends otherwise there's lots of freeloaders who weigh you down. Other than that, lectures are boring and uninspiring. The tests are half random trivia half drawing diagrams. Everything you need to finish the 2 projects is out at the beginning of the semester. Start early and the class is easy but it drags.
This class was a step up from 440 because there was no documentation project. We covered less content, were frequently let out early, and the first 2 tests were easy. In general you have more freedom in this class than in 440. Unfortunately the lectures were still incredibly boring. All of them were recorded though so no need to attend class.
The class was not hard if you keep up with the assignments. Lots of silly busy work which was annoying. Thought the professor and TAs were not helpful, lecture was boring along with lab. It is easy to pass but you wont have fun in it.
Content of the course is useful for anyone going into CS as a career. Reports are scheduled with no regard for breaks - there were two major deadlines over Thanksgiving weekend - and you'll seemingly always get a couple points off for vague issues. Study the given slides closely for exams, because anything could be on there.
Has pen and paper exams, which threw me off at first, but the grading curve is generous. Make sure you start on assignments early, especially because there is always at least one day in class where there is dedicated lab time for an assignment, it will help you to be able to go over where you are stuck with the professor.
Prof. Bell assigns a lot of work and has a clear grading criteria. However, his exams and general expectations are INCREDIBLY HARD and UNFAIR. It's possible to get a decent grade, but you need to be ready to put in the work. He expects perfection even for the trivial stuff. He was also rude to students several times throughout the semester.
I think this is one of the professor's where I really don't understand the criticism. From the very beginning of class, he gives you a clear schedule of everything that is due and good examples of how it's done. Assignments mimic a real word scenario, similar to my internships. Although Exams seem unnecessary, they are just memorization.
Tough
It's hard to stay focused because the Homework, Lab assignments, and Lectures don't seem to be aligned with each other, in labs most students plus myself don't know the material to the full extent. He assigns tough homework and when he does examples similar to the homework, he makes a decent amount of errors when teaching us in Lectures.
He has absolutely no clue how to teach. He makes an intro to cs class over complicated teaching data structures and pointers. Not one person likes this guys teaching.
Relatively easy class to get a good grade. The entire semester is spent working in a group. If you stay on top of your assignments and have groupmates that don't slack off the workload isn't bad at all. Exams are a lot of memorizing small details, but not worth too much. Generous grading curve to make up for tough grading on assignments.
Professor was nice and chatty, gave assignments related to the course's content, and gave extra credits for every single lab and assignment, you just have to get them done. CS 100 is a general education course (it's easy) so maybe that's why my experience with him was different from many others here.
Professor was nice and chatty, gave assignments related to the course's content, and gave extra credits for every single lab and assignment, you just have to get them done. CS 100 is a general education course and I'm not a CS major, maybe that's why my experience with him was different from many others.
Worst professor ever. John would assign insanely hard projects while providing absolutely zero help. What made it worst was you had to do the projects late into the week since you didn't learn anything in class and had to do the reading beforehand. Average on the midterm was 38%. If you have ANY OTHER option, take it.
Lectures are both mandatory and a complete waste of time. The content covered in the class is super useless, just memorization of different design patterns, software engineering methods etc. You learn nothing technical in the class at all.
John Bell's CS 107 course at UIC is supposed to be an introductory course; however, the course is exceedingly difficult for no apparent reason. In particular, the exams are very long and tedious. In the short time, he does give for the exams, he proceeds to talk mid-exam. The only saving grace is the cheat sheet he lets you have during the exam.
We learned very hard topics for no clear reason. The lectures are absolutely useless. The labs, homework and exams are all way too difficult for anyone to actually learn from them. There is no way to study for the exams, he just says "anything is fair game" which makes no sense in a coding class. Worst prof I have had, stay far away.
why's he still a prof?
John Bell does not care whatsoever about his students. If you want to study for the exams he just tells you to know absolutely everything. When there is almost 15 weeks of content to understand, and having other classes to worry about, you are almost screwed during finals week. If you want to remain sane, avoid this professor at all costs.
dont take him.
Really bad, AVOID
Course website is a nightmare to navigate. TAs look for features/member for group project releases 1&2, release 3 is graded by him solely on the presentation - doesn't matter what you've made. Needs more consistency there. 2 midterms and 1 final, which you need to study for. Grading is fairly easy, but done by the TA so your mileage may vary.
who hurt you?
If I had one day left to live, I'd spend it in his class because it feels like an eternity
He made most of the answer choices for an exam Bs. Imagine having 5 Bs in a row and then questioning your sanity and second guessing yourself. :(((((((
If you have a SE conc. DROP IT (It's useless and not worth the headache of 440/442 with him). This class is a TIME PIT (easily clocking over 12-15hours/week if you're a main contributor to your group). Exams are hard and he uses questions that he didn't even cover in lecture; are only in the book. Pray you have a past exam from someone else
hard class
Avoid this class at all costs. The lectures are useless, the exams are impossibly difficult, and the professor offers zero help. However, using Unstuck study for study prep may help salvage the situation. Just focus on the textbook and labs and you might scrape by with a decent grade.
One of my favorite professors at UIC! He's very friendly and engaging in his lectures. Wish I had the chance to take more courses with him.
Was a great professor, he's very understanding and wants his students to succeed. Wish I could take his course again, the semester-wide project really provides valuable insight that companies look for when looking for potential interns. Probably one of the most important classes if you want to go into software engineering.
He's good at teaching and funny but I feel like the class feel too broad like I didn't know what to expect on the exams.
He is not a great person; whenever you tell him something private, he tells it to the whole class for some reason, making it such a violation. Not only that, for the exams he doesn't tell you what's going to be on it, he only says "study everything." He won't even give a practice exam or anything to use as preparation. There's more, but too long.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
49%
Textbook Required
25%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.81 avg changeRatings by Course
CS340
5.0
(2)CS420
5.0
(1)CS376
4.0
(2)CS442
3.8
(5)CS450
3.5
(2)Difficulty by Course
CS202
5.0
CS107
4.7
CS376
4.5
CS211
4.5
CIS109
4.3